Buried
by left2write
Summary: Seeley Booth lost the best partner he ever had. Or did he?
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

"Seeley. Are you coming?"

Seeley Booth turned slowly, facing his girlfriend, Camille Saroyan. He wanted to run. Hide. Go anywhere else than where he was heading.

"I know it's hard," Cam said, placing a hand on his arm. "But, she was your partner. Your friend. Maybe... maybe saying goodbye will give you closure."

"Closure?" he asks, his voice thick with emotion that he didn't dare show.

Camille stood up and approached her friend, her boyfriend that had been consumed with grief for the past two days. And consumed with determination and worry the day before that.

"Seeley, I'm not promising it will make anything better. Saying goodbye is not easy. But... it's something we do to help ourselves heal and move on when we're in pain. When we've lost someone we loved."

He flinched. "I did not love Bones. Dr. Brennan," he corrected himself. "She was my partner. A colleague. That was it."

That was not it, and both of them knew it.

"Let's go," Booth finally said, storming out of his office.

"Right behind you, friend," Cam said to herself, standing alone in the room.

She walked out and closed the door.

The memorial service of her two friends was going to be hard.

And she wasn't sure her boyfriend would survive it.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Two Days Ago

Temperance Brennan was scared. It was a new sensation for her. Fear wasn't something she felt very often. _Wrap yourself in a suit of logic and it feels like armor. Be practical. Don't be emotional. Be rational. Always. Take karate. Learn to fight for yourself. Speak your mind._

No. Fear was not a friend of Brennan's.

Right now? She was surrounded by dirt. And blood. Hodgins' blood. He hadn't woken up yet. That scared her too. She had performed surgery on him. And he was still out cold. She felt alone. Buried.

And very scared.

She did not like to depend on anyone but herself. But... right now, she was thinking a lot about her partner. She had seen him countless times come through for her. At the final countdown, he always came through.

Hodgins jumped. He was awake. Brennan released a breath she didn't even know she was holding.

She had one less thing to be afraid of for the moment.

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Booth drove over to see the Cantilever Group, his mind reeling. He gripped the steering wheel, because every time he took his hands off of it, he realized they were shaking.

He was a sniper, trained in combat, and an FBI Special Agent. He'd seen a lot of action. He'd lost friends, lost colleagues, lost cases, faced heartbreak.

But he didn't remember his hands ever _shaking_ in fear before. He wasn't used to being afraid. He cared about all his cases. This... this was different. Fear shook him to the core because if he didn't solve this one in time....

Bones... Bones was going to die. In a matter of hours, she could be dead. At that thought, his foot pushed down harder on the gas.

That partner of his... boy she could get on his nerves sometimes. Get right under the skin. With her observations, her unscreened flow of thoughts, her blunt honesty... he'd never worked with anyone like her before.

And it was all the more special because of that. He wouldn't change a thing about her. Not one thing. Truth be told, his job got more enjoyable since they'd become partners. He could admit that in this moment. Probably because the thought of going to work tomorrow without his partner devastated him. He enjoyed the challenges she threw his way. The banter. The differences that made each one equal parts partner in their unique partnership.

He'd get assigned an actual FBI agent probably. Someone who already had a gun. Who agreed with his methods and shared many of them. Someone with similar training to his own. Or they'd team him with another scientist. But... while the squints were a special breed, he knew Temperance Brennan truly was different. Her quirks were so uniquely _Bones... _he'd never find a partner like her again.

This whole thing was some kind of nightmare. If he ever got his hands on the Gravedigger, he would kill him. Snap his neck, beat him senseless, shoot him until his face was no longer recognizable by anyone other than his squint squad. Because they could always put everyone back together. They could give everyone back their identity.

He pulled up to the Cantilever Group building. If they gave him the ransom money, his career would be over.

And she would live. He couldn't get out of his car fast enough.


	3. Chapter 2

Thank you so much for the reviews!! It means the world to me

**Chapter 2**

Seeley Booth walked out of the office of the Cantilever Group, a feeling of resignation washing over him. Bones and Hodgins were being held hostage; if the ransom wasn't paid, they would die. The Gravedigger made that much clear.

And right now… he couldn't pay the ransom. The policy that Hodgins put in place was airtight. He hoped he'd have the opportunity to talk to him about tweaking the policy a bit. He prayed.

He jumped back in his car and drove over to the Jeffersonian Institute, the sinking feeling worsening with every mile.

He thought about his year working with Bones. The drive to the Jeffersonian had actually become quite a nice one. He enjoyed walking into the lab every day and discussing topics that went way over his head with his small band of 'squints.'

Now he dreaded going there. She wouldn't be there. Would she ever be there again? Would he ever visit the institution again, work with the team again – a team that felt sort of like a family now? He dreaded going there and telling them… what was left of them right now… that he failed to get ransom.

That he couldn't even think of another way to get eight million dollars to free their friends.

They were going to fall apart. He wasn't sure he could be strong for any of them this time.

8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Hodgins looked at the dirt (for lack of a better word) that Brennan was showing him. He desperately tried to find anomalies that would help him determine where they were buried. They were running out of time.

"Is there any distinguishing trait you can find?"

Maybe it was the fact he'd been operated on a couple hours ago and was still reeling from the pain. He felt hardly himself. He felt claustrophobic. He was emotional. Desperate. He was trying. This was his thing. He was the dirt guy!

He stared.

He wanted to cry.

There was nothing here that spoke to him. Nothing that could help him find his way back above ground. To Angela. For another try. He felt like it was all up to him. And he was failing.

"Hodgins, it's okay," Brennan said.

He looked into her eyes – searching for disappointment. He found understanding instead.

"It was a long shot," she said earnestly. "And we're not done trying."

He sighed. "I will keep trying."

She smiled weakly. "Me too."

8 8 8 8 8 8 88 8

Tom Vega was annoying. Booth had wanted to slam this guy into a wall from the moment he met him. This man glorified a serial killer. The Gravedigger killed children and innocents – and this man made him famous.

His arrival to Booth's office was convenient. Before he walked in, Booth was on the verge of a breakdown. He could feel his breath coming faster; he was nearly hyperventilated. He had just left the Jeffersonian and told Cam the bad news.

Together they agreed that his partner was taken for a reason. Because _he _opened up an investigation. And because he told the world how good his partner was at helping him get the bad guys. He was out to dinner and she left work. The Gravedigger got his victims in an underground garage every time. He hadn't thought about protecting his partner – and he should have. He was out on a date when she was in danger. He let her walk into a trap that if he had just stopped for a moment, balanced his hormones, and thought about it – he would've realized Bones needed protection.

He would've realized how dangerous this assignment was.

Vega walked in on Booth's self-torment wearing an expression of nonchalance. Like it didn't matter how this case turned out for him. Like it shouldn't matter so much to Booth.

It hit booth like a ton of bricks that this man was every bit as responsible for what happened to Bones as the Gravedigger himself! So when he ever muttered the words "if you don't pay the ransom in time… your partner is dead," it drove Booth just over the edge he was already dangling from so delicately.

He snapped, grabbing this vermin, and throwing him hard, down, holding him down on the table in his office.

"You have a relationship with this guy, what they call symbiotic, you benefit from each other," he got out through gritted teeth. "So know this. That deadlines rolls around and my partner's still underground," he begun, his voice breaking slightly saying those terrifying words aloud, "I will end you."

His final four words were spoken with truth and conviction. If his worst nightmare became a reality, this man would suffer. Because he played a part in it. In all of it. His partner did not deserve this. Though who did? The Kent boys? No. No one deserved this awful fate and such a terrible way to die. If his partner and Hodgins died, Booth would end this man in any way he could.

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

"My cell phone is working. I can send out a single burst transmission."

Hodgins looked up at Brennan at that. "We don't know where we are," he stated. "What are you going to say? Goodbye?"

Brennan shrugged. "I don't know. I was thinking of who to send one quick note to, and based on my communications for the last year of my life, the only person that is rational is—"

"Booth."

He smiled gently. She looked down, almost embarrassed to admit she was volunteering Booth to receive what might be a final message.

"What do you want it to say?" Hodgins asked. "I can get the message out, no problem. My texting is like lightning."

"Well, I thought about goodbye. But I'm not giving up and that sounds kind of like resignation."

"Agreed," Hodgins said.

"The only message that could sum up my feelings in a couple words is…" she trailed off, sighing. "Well it's not as if I have romantic feelings for Booth. I want you to know that."

"Noted," Hodgins said, trying to refrain from smirking too much.

"But, he was a very good partner. And he's a very nice man. He seems to be a wonderful father. He's been the main person in my life for a long time now. I talk to him more than anyone. And I've just… I've really enjoyed my time with him. I think he's a great friend."

"I love you."

"What?" Brennan said, thrown by Hodgins' three-word admission.

"Your message to Booth," he clarified.

Tears filled her eyes. "I haven't said those words to anyone in a long time. I'm kind of staring death in the face right now. Booth deserves to know that he really made a difference in my life. When I live through this, I'll explain the sentiment was not romantic, but merely familial. Brotherly."

"So 'I love you'."

"Yes. 'I love you'."

He positioned the phone and looked at her. "Ready."

She slammed on the horn as he typed Brennan's message to one Seeley Booth.


End file.
